Saudi Aramco Said to Plan Spending $80 Billion Overseas

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil exporter, is planning to spend between $70 billion and $80 billion on overseas acquisitions and investments during the next five years, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The investment is part of the state-owned company’s target of spending $150 billion at home and internationally through 2019, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, will focus on Asia, particularly China and Korea, they said.

Saudi Aramco is expanding in refining and petrochemicals and seeking to boost ties with Asia as part of its ambition to become both the world’s largest oil and chemicals producer by the end of the decade. Last year it bought a $2 billion stake in S-Oil Corp., South Korea’s third-largest oil refiner.

The company has joint-venture plants in China, owns stakes in refining businesses in South Korea, Japan and the United States and markets its crude and refined products globally.

Aramco secured a $10 billion loan in March that could be used to fund potential acquisitions, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg at the time. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment.